Happy Hanukkah
by Socrates7727
Summary: It's Christmas. Ziva's first Christmas, actually, and Tony's first Hanukkah. Just a short one-shot, pure fluff! Tiva. Enjoy!


AN I don't own NCIS or any of its characters! I wasn't kidding about reviews, I was reading them and decided to write a one-shot to say thank you! Just happy fluff, enjoy!

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It was 4am. Abby was sprawled out on his floor, still staring at the fireplace with her camera still recording-as it had been since they got off work on Christmas Eve. Six caffpows were now in his garbage, two more beside her. Ziva went out and got them around one when Abby started talking to herself and placed them beside the girl's body like some kind of offering to a god.

McGee was asleep on the couch, snoring in time with the soft Christmas music playing. He'd had to drive Abby over, they said, because she was afraid of missing reindeer in the sky because she was watching the road, and he'd fall asleep around midnight. Tony wasn't sure why his apartment had been chosen as the Christmas gathering place, but he wasn't sure he minded. Abby said it was because he was the only one with an actual fireplace. McGee said it was convenient, because he and Ziva were already there it made for one less car being driven on the icy roads. Gibbs didn't say anything, just put his presents under the tree and started whittling.

Somehow, no one had questioned why Ziva was with him before Abby arrived. She'd come back to work since being extracted from the cell her father had put her in, and as far as they knew she was back at her old apartment. Maybe they assumed it was for the holidays?

But there a menorah on Tony's windowsill, and a dreidel on the coffee table, along with the Christmas tree and small decorations. No one said anything, though. Neither of them offered up any information.

"Tony will you smack McGee again?" Tony reached out with the slipper and smacked McGee's knee without even thinking. "I swear if his snoring is the reason I don't get to document proof of Santa, I'll kill him."

"Abby…"

"I mean it Gibbs! I'm a forensic scientist and if anyone knows how to make a body disappear and destroy all the evidence-" Abby kept talking, detailing how she would dispose of the remains and clear her own name with an alibi, but Tony turned his attention away from them for a moment. McGee, still asleep on one of the couches, began to snore again. Ziva took the slipper, this time, and whacked him with it, flashing Abby a smile.

It was easy, like that.

Gibbs stopped his whittling and handed Abby a little reindeer. She squealed and threw her arms around him in a hug, before exclaiming that she couldn't miss Santa and going back to her videotaping. McGee started to fall off the couch. Behind him, Ziva was curled up on the couch they usually sat on, wrapped in a blanket and drinking hot chocolate with a small smile.

"So, Zi, what do you think of Christmas? Anything like Hanukkah when you were little?" She smiled warmly at him. It was the kind of warmth she only ever gave him, and he loved it. But, thankfully, no one else noticed. They kept their voices low, hidden beneath Abby's detailed description of dismemberment.

"No, it is very different. At Hanukkah, my father would bring us each a present and we sat beneath the mantel to open them. Mine was always a little doll. And, beneath it, a knife of some kind, usually expensive. My brothers all got guns and a pat on the back. It was happy, but it was not like this. This is very different." Tony glanced at the group, either asleep or watching the fireplace, and let himself reach out to take her hand. It was warm from the mug of cocoa, and smooth. The first time he could ever remember feeling her palm without any calluses, and he relished it.

"Is it a bad different?" Another smile, and she squeezed his hand back.

"No, Tony, it is a good different. I like this: the decorating, the music, the presents… But we had that before. Hanukkah with my family never had any of _this_ ," She motioned to the room with her mug. "No Abby trying to get Santa on tape, no Gibbs whittling little reindeer out of sticks, no McGee snoring on the couch, and no you. I like this, even if it is not my religion. It feels more like family than a ceremony." He loved that tone in her voice, that dip of a whisper and that light rise in pitch that said she was talking through a smile. God, he never wanted to hear her voice any other way.

"You know, if you take a candy cane off the tree you can stir your cocoa and make it extra christmas-y." He handed her one, even as he said it. She followed his direction without question and seemed to almost sigh at the hint of peppermint it added.

"We could have Christmas like this every year, you know." Her eyes flicked up from the mug, as deep and warm as the cocoa itself. She looked content, he realized.

"Is that so?" He nodded, still thumbing the back of her hand. It was too soon to get wrapped up in thoughts like that, too early to think that far into the future. But he could honestly say he didn't mind the idea of spending every Christmas like this. With her.

"Yeah, Hanukkah too if you want." She hummed in appreciation. "We could make every day feel like family, too, if you wanted."

"And how would we do that?" He glanced between Abby and Gibbs and McGee with a little smile before finally looking back up at her.

"You could not leave. Don't go back to your place once it's repaired, stay." For a moment, her smile fell away replaced with something like suspicion. Though, it didn't look very threatening from behind a mug of peppermint cocoa.

"Tony, are you asking me to move in with you?" Maybe there was a bit of hesitation in her voice, but he knew her now well enough to know it was mixed with hope. The smile was back, playing at the corners of her mouth like a shadow.

"Yeah, if you want to. It can be a present." She glanced at the tree in the corner of the room.

"We already have Christmas presents, though."

"For Hanukkah, then." That made her smile. Slowly, she pulled the end of the candy cane from her mug and ran it between her lips, curling her tongue around it and making sure he watched. But it was a game, it was lighthearted, and it made him smile because she hadn't said no yet.

"A present for you? Or for me?" It was his turn to smile, at the playfulness in her voice. She ran the candy cane again between her teeth with a smirk, squeezing his hand. He laughed a little under his breath.

"Both, I think. You haven't said no, does that mean…?" She smiled.

"Happy Hanukkah, Tony."

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Thanks for reading! Reviews/comments make me so, so happy! Also, let me know if you guys like more hurt/comfort, more smut, more fluff, etc.


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